Can a nation that considers itself 100 percent Muslim also be a democracy without risking its Islamic identity and ideals, asks Vishal Arora in the Huffington Post.
That’s what this tiny island nation off the southern coast of India is trying to do. Two years after the country embraced democracy, a literary festival imported from the West shows the promise -and peril – of that experiment.
Every year, an estimated 700,000 tourists flock to this postcard-perfect chain of about 1,100 islands. Before they can hit the beach, however, they must complete a customs form that includes a list of “prohibited and restricted” imports, including “materials contrary to Islam,” “idols for worship,” pork products and alcohol.
The restrictions are lingering vestiges of the 30-year rule of Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, a conservative authoritarian who yielded power in the country’s first democratic elections in 2008.
Yet even with the change in government, there’s been little desire for a change in policy on religious restrictions.
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I don't understand why religious freedom is restricted in this country. I think most people see the right to religious freedom as a threat to Islam.
I don't think it is or that it has the potential to be a threat to Islam. In fact it is against Islam to impose Islamic beliefs onto a society/individual that has rejected it. (Sûrah 109- Al-kâfirûn
"To you be your religion and to me my religion.")
It would just make this country more alligned with the real facts (ie that we are NOT a 100 percent Muslim country). It does not mean that the state religion (Islam) would be attacked or restricted, their rights too will be protected, alongside the rights of the individuals with lack of faith or those with a faith that is inconsistent with the state religion.
We have lived in a hypocritical society for far too long.